Editorial: Failure without consequence
Monday, 29 June 2026
EDITORIAL: New Zealand has, over decades, established itself as a world leader in any number of endeavours. Regrettably, among them is the state's remarkable capacity to embark upon ambitious projects, consume extraordinary quantities of public money, and arrive, years later, at precisely nowhere.
The latest exhibit is the abandoned $33 million immigration biometrics programme.
The Minister of Immigration, Erica Stanford, has revealed not merely that the project failed to produce the modernised identity system for which taxpayers paid, but that Cabinet appears to have been repeatedly misled about its progress. Officials, she said, supplied advice that was 'diametrically opposed to the truth' — a phrase as remarkable for its bluntness as for what it implies.
That allegation alone justifies the decision of Public Service Commissioner, Sir Brian Roche, a Mr Fix-It for successive Governments, to appoint a former Solicitor-General, Mike Heron KC, a repeated Government inquirer-of-choice, to investigate.
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Whether the inquiry uncovers incompetence, negligence, misconduct or something more serious remains to be seen.
The Immigration NZ debacle is no isolated embarrassment. It belongs to a depressingly familiar catalogue.
Consider the National Ticketing Solution.
When conceived in 2009, it was an entirely sensible proposition: one national ticketing system for public transport. Seventeen years later, taxpayers have committed more than $1 billion to the programme, more than $200m has already been spent, and a nationwide system remains elusive outside of Christchurch. A 2025 trial in Timaru and Temuka had to be delayed. If past practice is any predictor of performance, completion before late 2027 appears optimistic rather than assured.
Meanwhile, Greater Wellington Regional Council, tiring of the wait, quietly commissioned its own functioning ticketing platform for approximately $5m.
The absurdities scarcely end there. When the Government merely inquired whether the proposed 'Motu Move' branding could be reconsidered, officials estimated that redesigning the scheme would cost $6.2m, with associated costs approaching $28m once replacement cards, signage and vehicle livery were included.
The Minister of Transport, Chris Bishop, wisely declined the change.
Nothing about such estimates is unlawful. They are, however, symptomatic of something deeply unhealthy: a bureaucracy whose conception of reasonable cost has drifted alarmingly far from that of the citizens who finance it. Consider, if the $28m rebrand had gone ahead it would eat the taxes of nearly 3500 single minimum wage earners.
Hardworking and diligent public servants are right to despair when they see the reputation of their profession sullied by the incompetence and overspending of their higher ups.
Nor is this a novel phenomenon.
The abandoned Auckland cycle bridge consumed approximately $150 million before a not being built. Auckland light rail absorbed around $230 million without laying meaningful track. The cancelled iReX ferry project left taxpayers carrying hundreds of millions in sunk costs. Before them came Novopay, itself now part of the country's lexicon of public sector failure.
Each project possesses its own peculiar history and each its own explanation. Yet together they reveal a pattern that is becoming impossible to dismiss as coincidence.
The modern state appears increasingly adept at producing business cases, governance structures, external reviews and consultant reports. It appears markedly less adept at completing the projects themselves in a sensibly fashion.
New Zealand is hardly unique - all nations with common law traditions seem to suffer similarly. That observation may explain our predicament. It cannot excuse it.
Heron's inquiry should determine which real human beings bear responsibility for the Immigration New Zealand fiasco - and if there was lying, who did it. Equally important, it should confront the institutional culture that made such failure appear tolerable. The nation does not need another report that just finds process failures.
For if tens or hundreds of millions of public dollars may be expended without consequence, then failure has ceased to be an exception. It has become a governing philosophy. That is a far graver scandal than any single abandoned project.
Taxpayers, all New Zealanders and The Post surely wish Sir Brian and Mr Heron all the best as they leave no stone unturned to this time - finally - get to the bottom of this scandalous pattern.